Let me ask you honestly. Do you BELIEVE Matt Schuab could lead this team to the Super Bowl or do you HOPE he can?

I think most of us HOPE he can, but the reality is substantially against that.

The way that Matt Schaub plays in "games that matter" has not inspired confidence. Other teams even seem to know that they do not need to fear us when the "game matters".

Is that all on Matt Schaub? Not all of it. Has he got us this far? Absolutely. Is in the top half of QB's in the league? Absolutely. Does he feel (or play) like a QB who can win you a SB? Not so much.

Our defense did play well enough to keep us in the game. But the offense BLEW several chances to take advantage. Watch the game again and just be honest.

I believe he can 100%.

Here's the thing. You say he is in the top half of the league but then question his ability to win a SB. That makes a pretty small list of team capable of winning.

That last paragraph is wrong. 41 points is not playing well enough for anything. Did the offense blow some chances? Sure. The defense blew a lot more chances. Not the least of which was the last drive and their inability to get off the field. The offense did enough to keep us in it. Not the defense.

mse - I think you are in a small camp. Now that being said have worse QB"s led their team to SB wins (absolutely) - I'm looking at you Trent Dilfer.

And right now there does seem to be a small list of QB's who seem to be able to carry their teams to a SB win. The thing that sucks is that you saw three possibly drafted this year.

Could the D have played better that is for certain. But if you look at the teams that have beaten the Pats, they have mainly done so by keeping up with them offensively - look at their record this year, few teams could stop them defensively.

Let me ask you honestly. Do you BELIEVE Matt Schuab could lead this team to the Super Bowl or do you HOPE he can?

I think most of us HOPE he can, but the reality is substantially against that.

The way that Matt Schaub plays in "games that matter" has not inspired confidence. Other teams even seem to know that they do not need to fear us when the "game matters".

Is that all on Matt Schaub? Not all of it. Has he got us this far? Absolutely. Is in the top half of QB's in the league? Absolutely. Does he feel (or play) like a QB who can win you a SB? Not so much.

Our defense did play well enough to keep us in the game. But the offense BLEW several chances to take advantage. Watch the game again and just be honest.

I believe he can 100%.

Here's the thing. You say he is in the top half of the league but then question his ability to win a SB. That makes a pretty small list of team capable of winning.

That last paragraph is wrong. 41 points is not playing well enough for anything. Did the offense blow some chances? Sure. The defense blew a lot more chances. Not the least of which was the last drive and their inability to get off the field. The offense did enough to keep us in it. Not the defense.

mse - I think you are in a small camp. Now that being said have worse QB"s led their team to SB wins (absolutely) - I'm looking at you Trent Dilfer.

And right now there does seem to be a small list of QB's who seem to be able to carry their teams to a SB win. The thing that sucks is that you saw three possibly drafted this year.

Could the D have played better that is for certain. But if you look at the teams that have beaten the Pats, they have mainly done so by keeping up with them offensively - look at their record this year, few teams could stop them defensively.

Schaub can. He wasn't the reason that we lost the game. First drive, a dropped pass cost us 4 points, that would have been big. The reason we couldn't win the game was because we couldn't stop Steven Ridley, Tom Brady and Wes Welker. Those three tore us a part. Schaub was not the reason that we lost this game. Ya'll need to calm down and accept that Schaub is our QB.

We aren't going to cut him, we aren't going to trade him. He will be our QB going into next year, and the following. You don't give a QB a 5 year extension and then cut, trade or bench him after year 1.

e aren't going to cut him, we aren't going to trade him. He will be our QB going into next year, and the following. You don't give a QB a 5 year extension and then cut, trade or bench him after year 1.

Not going to happen, we can stop all of this talk

This I agree with and see. My point = we need to be looking for our own Russell Wilson / Tom Brady = later round steal.

Also look at other defenses, Seahawks, Broncos, 49ers. All gave up 30+ points and are all too defenses. In the playoffs when your playing the best QBs in the league, they are goin to put up points. Its youre offense that has to match it and the texans did not do that because schaub was checking down the entire game! Hey im all for checking down in defnsie showdowns like the Bengals games. Limit your mistakes and dont force anything but this was a shootout and Matt Schaub shot blanks.

Also Itll be interesting to see what Foster and Andre have ti say about Schaub. Andre was so frustated on the field you could tell and you cant blame him when he takes no chances down field. DID YOU SEE WHAT ANDRE DID WITH TALIB DRAPPED ALL OVER HIM?! Talib was practically tackling andre on the 2 point conversion and he still manhandled him to get the catch. Throw ut up to him and let him make a play.

Foster is always a good quote and i remeber after either the colts or vikings game he made a comment after when asked about schaub that did not back him whatsoever.

Also Itll be interesting to see what Foster and Andre have ti say about Schaub. Andre was so frustated on the field you could tell and you cant blame him when he takes no chances down field. DID YOU SEE WHAT ANDRE DID WITH TALIB DRAPPED ALL OVER HIM?! Talib was practically tackling andre on the 2 point conversion and he still manhandled him to get the catch. Throw ut up to him and let him make a play.

Foster is always a good quote and i remeber after either the colts or vikings game he made a comment after when asked about schaub that did not back him whatsoever.

It's 4th down and 1 and Kubiak draws up a horrific play. You had Andre 1-on-1 down the field and you throw it to DeVier f'n Posey? You serious?

Also Itll be interesting to see what Foster and Andre have ti say about Schaub. Andre was so frustated on the field you could tell and you cant blame him when he takes no chances down field. DID YOU SEE WHAT ANDRE DID WITH TALIB DRAPPED ALL OVER HIM?! Talib was practically tackling andre on the 2 point conversion and he still manhandled him to get the catch. Throw ut up to him and let him make a play.

Foster is always a good quote and i remeber after either the colts or vikings game he made a comment after when asked about schaub that did not back him whatsoever.

It's 4th down and 1 and Kubiak draws up a horrific play. You had Andre 1-on-1 down the field and you throw it to DeVier f'n Posey? You serious?

Wait, your blaming Kubiak for Schaub not throwing to Andre on 4th and 1.Also how was that a horrific play design?i'll re-watch the game later today._________________

Let me ask you honestly. Do you BELIEVE Matt Schuab could lead this team to the Super Bowl or do you HOPE he can?

I think most of us HOPE he can, but the reality is substantially against that.

The way that Matt Schaub plays in "games that matter" has not inspired confidence. Other teams even seem to know that they do not need to fear us when the "game matters".

Is that all on Matt Schaub? Not all of it. Has he got us this far? Absolutely. Is in the top half of QB's in the league? Absolutely. Does he feel (or play) like a QB who can win you a SB? Not so much.

Our defense did play well enough to keep us in the game. But the offense BLEW several chances to take advantage. Watch the game again and just be honest.

Great points but I have to ask, to anybody, when was the last time a team gave up 40+ points and won the game? Defense wins games.

Fair enough biggio - but it's the Patriots! You know they have an offense for the a$$. So you have to be able to punch with them. If we get up, he Pats have to pass. Our defense is built to play from the front - not from behind against repeat Super Bowl contenders.

I will give you that our D looked out of sync when the Pats went hurry up. (1) That's on the players to get their heads in the game; (2) the D Coordinator (our beloved Wade) has to be quicker (3) We missed Cush. Plain & simple. He makes the calls and fires up the D. But our D did play well enough to keep us in the game. BUT THE OFFENSE CANNOT HAVE TO's and HAS TO COMPLETE OPPORTUNITIES. The offense didn't do that.

I agree to some degree. But that defense lacked! No pressure, LB's on RB's on deep routes? C'mon.

I'll also agree that Schaub may not have played as well as he could have. But neither did the OL, or Foster, or...

I cannot keep from wondering that if Schaub is nothing more than a game manager, how much of that is on him, vs play calling, vs philosophy, vs Kubiak's expectations?

Right now, there are only 6-7 QB's I can think of that I'd rather have than Schaub. You can yell about drafting a QB, but that's a crapshoot. How many first round QB's end up being nothing more than a glorified back up? David Carr? JeMarcus Russell? Alex Smith? No thanks._________________Adopt-A-Texan: Arian Foster
Rushing: 204 Att 1028 Yds. 8 TD's
Receiving:33 Catches 276 Yds 4 TD's

You guys have a good team, the problem is mostly that you guys don't match up well with the Patriots (not many teams do though). 12 Wins is nothing to scoff at and you guys will have another top team next year. In today's NFL you either have an elite QB or defense to stop one. Good luck next season._________________

All the teams that advanced to the championship game forced more turnovers than the losers.We really need some playmakers on defense to force turnovers.

Going into next season, if we are going to go all in on Schaub with what we know now, then we got to make the defense a lot better.Manti Teo'o or Matt Elam sound good.I think the offensive line will be much better next year but we really need to get a FA WR and draft some other weapons on offense.

Kubiak is not a problem to this team, it's ridiculous to think so.Hes calling the game similar way he did at Denver._________________

You guys have a good team, the problem is mostly that you guys don't match up well with the Patriots (not many teams do though). 12 Wins is nothing to scoff at and you guys will have another top team next year. In today's NFL you either have an elite QB or defense to stop one. Good luck next season.

Thanks for the kind words TTR. Good luck the rest of the way!

Post game thoughts:

- Lost in all of the hand wringing? This team just went 12-4, just won a division, won a playoff game. Sure, this is the tale of three good months being wiped out by a bad month...but let's not miss the forest because of all the trees in the way. This team made the elite 8 this season, 2nd year in a row we've done so. There are 24 teams who would kill to have the chance that we had over the past two years, and with a relatively young core, there's no reason why we shouldn't be mainstays in this picture for a while. The NFL moves fast, but the Texans are built to keep up in for the next few years.

- I am simply DONE defending Matt Schaub as the QB of the Texans. Now, let me state this: Matt Schaub is a good QB. Above average, actually. Going into this season, I had him in that 7-10 range, but it's a safe assumption that he's not in that range anymore; A few guys have simply caught up to him. (This has more to do with rookie QBs not needing a "warm up" period anymore. Guys are coming into the NFL, ready to make an impact right out of the gates now). This all being said...in this NFL, you can't get by with having a "good/above average" QB anymore and expect to win a Super Bowl. It may of worked for Baltimore at the turn of the century, it may of worked for Tampa Bay in 2003...but that was nearly 10 years ago, the NFL has changed since then. If the Texans are to turn the corner from "very good" to "great", the QB has to turn the corner from "very good" to "great", and I don't see a 31 year old QB with a long injury history and a tendency to fail at the worst times ever turning that corner. The issue? Is there a QB out there via FA or draft that can represent that "very good-to-great" swing? Maybe not this offseason, no.

- Joe Marciano needs to go. Now. Special teams was good yesterday, perhaps the best they've been all season long. Danieal Manning was a monster on KR, the coverage units didn't allow any major breaks for the Pats return game. However, you can't judge a unit based on one game, and if we let the Pats game be the game in which we judge Marciano, we're missing on the biggest mistakes this team made this season. In essence, the season was "lost" the minute Deji Karim took that KO to the house in the Colts game this season, an untouched sprint right up the middle. That is unacceptable, and a glance of this season in a nutshell; The worst mistake at the worst possible time, one that was basically a dagger in the heart.

- Dammit, JUST when DeVier started to look like a monster. Man, the kid was showing some promise, and now...well another lost year for him, as the achillies heel tear is a nightmare injury to overcome. One side of me is willing to give Rick Smith some MAJOR props, because he saw something that nobody else saw and found a gem of a WR, someone who could of really placed himself in that 2nd tier of WRs one day, a fringe 15-20 guy. But...well, might be a long time before we see that. Might NEVER see that, actually. Injuries happen, sad to see it happen to a guy who was starting to find his NFL game...

- I need an APB on Ben Tate. WHERE the hell was he yesterday!? Arian Foster was having some tough times out there, his style of running wasn't working up until midway through the game. WHY the heck didn't we try another runner? Did we forget that Tate nearly broke 1,000 yards last season, and was a big part of our early start last year? Is the guy still hurt? Is Kubiak simply down on the guy? Whatever the hell the case is, we've gotta do SOMETHING with him. Play him or trade him, he does nothing for this team if he's collecting dust on the bench._________________

i think we are closer than we realize...Lets not lose sight of the 13 wins we had this season, not to mention the fact that we destroyed the Ravens and had we beaten the Pats would have a real shot at the Super Bowl.

Watching the game yesterday showed me 1 HUGE hole that possibly was the difference in a super bowl trip: Inside LineBacker

Our ILB core of James and Ruud was simply outmatched by the Pats and they exploited every part of it. They were not there in run support and we horrible in pass coverage

assuming that Cushing comes back and can play at a high level and we get Sharpton back healthy, we will be loads better at that vital spot in the line up, but we have to address depth. im thinking we go ILB with a first or 2nd round pick

Also i thought Schuab played a good game yesterday. He had the awful miss of Johnson on the first drive, but that play never should have happened. For most of the game Schuab was right on and our guys were dropping passes. A few times it even appeared that the Pats knew our plays, which isnt on Schuab at all. He threw the pick and got sacked once, but he did lead us on a huge comback attempt and the Defense couldnt get him the ball back. In fact when the Pats got the ball there at the end i know they were thinking they couldnt stop our offense.

1 player can make the difference in a game and in a season and Brian Cushing is that type of player. Losing him left us in a rough spot, one that we simply couldnt overcome. I know every team has to deal with injuries but that doesnt mean they arent the reason teams lose...look at the colts when they lost manning. Cushing was the leader and captain of our D and it was a HUGE blow

to be honest we did very well this season considering we lost half our offensive line in the off season and replaced them with scrubs, we lost key defensive players like Williams and Ryan as well as Cushing, Sharpton, McCain